Rome in the New York Times

An article this week in the Europe section of the New York Times cites blogger Tom Rankin’s efforts to bring attention back to the Tiber through the work of the association he directs, Tevereterno Onlus.

“Our mission is about reactivating a public space that we think has been forgotten, taking an abandoned piece of infrastructure and using site-specific contemporary art to make that space a place once again,” said Tom Rankin, the director of Tevereterno, a nonprofit organization.

Tevereterno requisitioned this downtown section of the Tiber more than a decade ago to create a dedicated public space for contemporary art, called Piazza Tevere.

Today it wants arts projects — Mr. Kentridge’s mural has been the most ambitious so far — to change the way Romans think about the river, acting as a “catalyst for change along the river’s lengths,” Mr. Rankin added.

Most capital cities with rivers, he noted, “have cleaned up their act long since.”

Here’s the link to the complete article.